The Community Charge...is It Fair On Single People ?

[mikey4444]

As a singleton, I have to pay 75% of the C.Tax that the family next door pays, despite there being two wages earners and 3 children living there.

I am quite happy to pay my share of C.Tax but why isn't my discount 75% instead of only 25% ? It doesn't seem terribly fair to me.

[Baldric]

Typical of Labour, everything for next to nothing!

[bhg481]

Your street is lit as brightly as theirs; your dustbin is emptied as often as theirs etc. You may not put as much in your dustbin but most of the cost is coming to empty it. On top of that you were probably subsidised by older, single folk when you were young with a family and now it's pay-back time.

[SirOracle]

Surely Mikey you are not advocating a return to that hated poll tax introduced by Thatcher and inflicted on the Scots initially.

[chelle7272]

I'd love to have 75% discount on rent for living alone, but that just isn't how it works!

[gingejbee]

Very few things in life are "terribly fair"...

[ummmm]

Like bhg says....you're still using the services.

[hc4361]

Why should you get any discount? The dustman collects your rubbish exactly the same as your neighbours'; you have the same amount of street lighting; you get the same service from the police and fire service; you are not barred from the parks, swimming pools or libraries......

If single households got a 75% discount it stands to reason council tax would have to go up overall to cover the shortfall. It is highly likely you would end up paying much the same as you do now, and your neighbours' would pay a whole lot more. If council tax were so high then the council tax benefits would be a bigger burden on the council, so they'd have to increase council tax......


Be grateful for the discount you have

[steg]

I'm happy with what I pay and more than happy with my 25% discount

[ummmm]

My neighbours NEVER put out rubbish. They take it to the tip themselves. Should they get a discount?

(she's a snob, she doesn't want people in the street to see what they consume!)

[mikey4444]

I fully realise that life is rarely fair but ....

1.....The family next door must be using more of the services that the local Council provides than I do.

2.....There is far more money coming into their house, than there is to mine.

3....In 3 years times, I will be a pensioner, with even less money coming in but I will still have to pay 75% of what they do.

So, I would have thought that the arrangement could be a little more fair than it is right now, that is all. If it was changed to a 50% discount, I wouldn't argue.

And no.....I certainly wouldn't want the Poll Tax to come back...even the Tories don't want to see that back again !

[mikey4444]

hc4361...we crossed in the post. My main argument is that there is more income coming in next door than into my house.

[ummmm]

How do you know what your neighbours income is?

Even if it is much more than yours you still don't know what their overheads are.

[Baldric]

Seems logical there would be with more wage earners!

[ummmm]

More people living in a house means the house is more expensive to run.

3 children...what do they contribute?

[bhg481]

But in three years' time you will get a bus pass.

[hc4361]

Mikey, do you think it fair than it my council area the charge for Band Ccouncil tax is £1141.06 whilst the top band is £2,567.39?

In my little street there are houses in band C and the top band. One house is worth around £150k while another house sold for just short of £1m. Looks to me as the owners of the £1m house is getting bargain council tax.

[hc4361]

mikey, were you ever married with children (or living together with children or even had children living with their mother(s))?

[bhg481]

Or were you ever a child?

[mikey4444]

The main problem with the C.Tax is that it is a tax, that takes no account of the ability to pay. Its just the old Rates, with another name. Pensioners with very little money coming in, still have to pay, although this is taken care of by giving them Housing Benefit, and then taking it away again.

The Tories introduced the Poll Tax in Scotland in 1989, and then in England and Wales in 1990. Its basic principle, that every adult should pay something towards providing for local services seemed to make some sense, but it was fatally flawed, as people with no income still had to pay 20% of the full charge. Huge problems were soon encountered in Scotland but the Tories still pressed on to implement it in England and Wales. It finally collapsed until the sheer weight of numbers of people refusing to pay.

In November 1990, South Yorkshire police said they were planning to refuse to arrest poll tax defaulters even when instructed to by the courts because it would be "physically impossible for the police because of the large number of defaulters"

A rarely mentioned effect of the Poll Tax may have been the unexpected Tory victory in 1992, coming about because there were huge numbers of people not registered to vote, as this would have led them to liable to the Poll Tax.

All in all, the Poll Tax was a brave attempt to deal with the perennial problem of local government financing, but was formulated and administered in such a cack-handed way that it was doomed to failure from the start. It was a complete Horlicks, which is why John Major did away with it as soon as he possibly could.

Its all here :::

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Charge